


The Plan

by LadyBArtist



Series: One Summer [3]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Character Study, Episode: s01e29 Operation - Annihilate, Family, Fate, Love, M/M, Thinking about what's important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 04:46:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11372853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBArtist/pseuds/LadyBArtist
Summary: Captain Kirk tells us all about the things he'd do for love during 'Operation: Annihilate!'. He reveals how fate compelled him to make a shocking decision in the aftermath of Spock becoming blind.This short tale serves as the prologue to our forthcoming story: The First Voyage Home. It can be read as a standalone piece also





	The Plan

No one knows about this. Not even Winona, so - you’re welcome. 

Where should I start? A summary of the situation would be the obvious place. The Federation had been unable to contact a planet called Deneva for twelve months. On our arrival we found out why. Single-celled creatures, controlled by some unknown entity, had taken over the whole planetary system. They had first appeared thousands of years ago, moving slowly at first, but were now spreading with increasing rapidity due to advances in space travel. 

The creatures attached themselves to a host, puncturing their spine with a stinger of sorts. A venom was then injected through this stinger, invading the host’s nervous system. The host would then begin to feel total and excruciating pain at the limit of their endurance. The creatures – or rather, the creatures’ controller – then instructed the host to follow its commands. If those commands were disobeyed, the pain increased, to the point of death in some cases.

This is what had come to Deneva. Deneva - a planet which also happened to be the place where my only brother Sam, his wife Aurelan and their children had made their home. 

I acted badly from the start. I snapped at Uhura. Yes, Sam was involved but so were millions of other inhabitants. Everyone of them mattered just as much as him. It wasn’t fair to chew her out. But I did and…well – just keep reading.

We beamed down. I’m sure you've guessed already what we found there. Sam was dead. The only survivors were his wife and one of his sons – Peter. We would later lose Aurelan. My father George died when I was thirteen. Peter was probably going to die too. The Kirks were all but gone. I felt like I was going crazy.

Push-push-push. I had to find out what was going on. Come on Spock, let’s go.

And then it happened. I thought he was dead at first; I couldn’t feel him inside my head anymore. Later, I found out that he’d put a lock on our bond. If he hadn’t then whatever he was going through would have been passed along to me. 

So, he wasn’t dead, He was worse. Spock had been stung.

We got back to the ship. I was desperate for answers. I couldn’t lose Spock as well – do you understand? My family and him all gone inside a day? I couldn't stand it. ‘I’m going to lose Peter, I’m going to lose Spock…’ That was my whole thought pattern. Pacing, pacing, pacing. We had to crack this. Push-push-push.

I say _we_ , but I mean that _he_ had to crack this: Spock. Spock’s the smartest guy on the Enterprise. Spock’s the smartest guy anywhere. That’s one of the reasons why I like him. ‘Spock, how do we do this?’ Bang! There’s your answer! Day saved, thank you very much. Now come over here and kiss me.’

Thing was, Spock was in so much pain that even he struggled to control it. I watched him flinching, shaking, breathing shallow, clamping his lips together. I wanted to hold him, let him sink through me and find peace. ‘Come lie with me and I’ll make it all go away.’ 

But I might never have the chance to hold him again. He was going to die without me telling him how I really feel.

I needed him to solve this. He offered and I took it; I seized his loyalty with both hands and ran with it. Push-push-push. Bones too. I worked him like a slave. ‘Not good enough, gentlemen. I need that third alternative!’ Push-push-push. 

And then we had an answer. Light. Really bright light killed the creatures. Spock again – ‘I am the obvious choice…’ I let him sacrifice himself and all because I couldn’t – wouldn’t - wait. Push-push-push.

So, we tried our idea. It worked. It killed the thing inside Spock. But the light was so bright that it stripped his sight. Spock was blind.

And then…and then Bones told me he’d discovered that only one spectrum of light was necessary to kill the things. Spock’s blindness could have been avoided.

In my determination to get a solution – to save a planet, to save Peter, to save Spock – I had maimed the very person I was trying to help. 

Push. Push. Push...

I chewed Bones out. Guilt…anger. The fault was all mine but I took it out on my best friend. Another casualty of James T. Kirk being James T. Kirk.

I left Spock and Bones in sickbay and made my way to the bridge. We were going to kill the creatures using satellites to beam the necessary light spectrum across the planet. Scotty engineered the equipment, Sulu carried out the operation. It took an hour or so. I sat in my chair, overseeing it all. There really wasn’t much for me to do…

‘Janice, bring me my PADD!’

Search: blindness in service of Starfleet.

Result: The service is committed to providing employment to Starfleet personnel who become blind through illness, accident or by any other means. This is facilitated by the adaption of equipment, living quarters etc. to ensure that the officer may continue to serve. A full programme of physical and mental therapy is also provided to assist the officer in living their new, sightless lifestyle. For more information, please **follow this link**. If you are a sightless soul and wish to join the service either as a soul with experience or as a cadet, please **follow this link**.

Spock could stay here. With us. With me. That would help. If Spock couldn’t serve, it would kill him. The fleet was all he had.

Search: curing blindness.

Result: The Federation research facility rated top for sightless therapy is the United States of Africa Centre for Sight, located in the city of Mogadishu on Terra. See **this link** for further information. Some sightless patients report high response rates to Vulcan healer therapies. See **this link** for details.

Vulcan. That seemed like a good plan. He could go back to Vulcan, temporarily. Then come back to Starfleet, cured or not.

I looked up from my PADD. I saw Mr. Sulu, punching buttons, checking his placement of the satellites. I saw Hadley rechecking Sulu’s calculations. I heard Uhura behind me, reassuring the Denevans that the pain would soon be gone and co-ordinating our whole team. I felt Janice’s hand on my shoulder. And I thought, ‘I love you all. I really do. But if I had to, I could walk away from everyone of you. The Enterprise too.’

But not Spock. I could never walk away from him.

This whole life of mine – wanting to be in Starfleet, getting there, becoming the youngest captain in history – all of it seemed to be for one reason: to bring me to Deneva to witness the death of my family. If I hadn’t joined the service, Sam and Aurelan would have died anyway, but they’d have died there alone. Maybe Peter would have survived without me – I don’t know. But I was here, at Deneva, to bring him, his father, mother, brother and sister home. 

And all of this I did with Spock by my side.

Spock had been there at the beginning, right when I decided I wanted to join Starfleet. Without his help, I wouldn't have passed the entrance exams.

Spock was here on the ship that brought me to Deneva, to my family.

Fate didn’t mean me to save my family. Fate didn’t mean to save Spock. Fate meant to teach me a lesson.

So, I started writing on my PADD:

The Admiralty  
Starfleet Central  
San Francisco  
Terra  
United Federation of Planets

Dear Sirs, 

I regretfully inform you that I am tendering my resignation. This decision has not been made lightly: Starfleet has been my life for sixteen years or more. The opportunities which the service has gifted to me are enormous. The people I’ve met, the experiences I’ve had – these things will live with me forever. However, certain recent events have proven to me that there is now another life I need to live; a life away from Starfleet, caring for the people I love most in the world - my family.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you for the care and guidance you have afforded me since my first day as a cadet. Starfleet has made the man I am today: a man who always strives to do the right thing, a man trained to recognise when a change must be made for the good of all concerned. It is such a situation that I find myself in now. And though I say goodbye with a heavy heart, I am also excited for the future which lies ahead.

I shall of course remain wholly committed to the fleet until a suitable replacement is appointed.

Yours truly,

Captain James T. Kirk

There, that was that. All done. They would contact me straightaway of course, find out exactly what was going on… I’d tell them - no reason to keep it quiet. I’d just rather explain it face-to-face. Komack flashed into my head, him calling to find out what was wrong and me answering:

‘I’m in love with Mr. Spock, sir.’

I grinned just thinking about that moment. I grinned thinking about telling everyone, in fact. I bet Uhura would say that she knew all along. Janice would go all soppy. They’d all slap my back and go, ‘Good on you, Captain.’ Well, maybe not Komack…

Besides, Starfleet would have me back. They’d keep my commission open for when Spock was cured or whenever he decided to return. There was no way that the fleet would risk losing its best captain and first officer forever.

But that didn’t matter at that moment. All that mattered was that I was going to Vulcan with Spock. We were going to buy a house. I looked up Vulcan property on my PADD. Very reasonable. More expensive where his mom and dad lived, but I had the money. And Spock was probably a millionaire - he never spent his damn salary. Maybe Peter would like to live with us – his uncles, Jim and Spock? Try a different culture, get some headspace from Deneva? And Spock’s dad wouldn’t be a problem. I’d make sure of that. Get Amanda involved…

‘Sir, the creatures! They’re dying!’ I smiled at Uhura. But I was smiling mostly because I was so damn happy. 

Twenty minutes later and I was reading reports from the surface to make sure I was happy with sending a team down. I had a file saved on my PADD containing the resignation letter and details of five properties that I’d highlighted as maybes. I’d go read them out loud to Spock later, describe them, find out what he thought.

The turbolift doors opened. There was Spock with Bones. Spock stared, and I mean, _stared_ right at me. 

‘There’s something about Vulcan optic nerves which are different to ours, Jim’.

Spock was almost grinning when he explained about his second eyelid.

I wanted to be glad. And I was. Of course I was. I didn’t want Spock blind. But a not-insubstantial part of me was grieving for that future I’d mapped out. Our little house on Vulcan, making dinner for Peter, caring for Spock and him having to accept it... all of it was gone. I was back to ground zero: me, sitting in the captain’s chair staring at Spock every damn minute his back was turned.

Yeah, business as usual.

But maybe it was fate just meaning that he and I had to be up here, together?

I didn’t know. All I knew was that I was still determined to do one thing: I was going back with Peter, Sam, Aurelan, George Jr and Jilly. I was going to Iowa, to Riverside, to the farm. I was going back to Winona. I was going home.

**Author's Note:**

>  _"put a lock on our bond..."_ Spock informs me that his bond with Jim is scary (his words, not mine). It formed back when they were teenagers. He's not sure when, it could have been over one incident or many, but it was so strong that it was basically at full bondmate staus. It was only Spock being stubborn and suppressing it that stopped it bringing them together sooner.
> 
>  _"I needed him to solve this..."_ Of course, Spock doesn't solve it in the end. It is Captain Kirk who thinks of the link between the bright sun of Deneva and the creatures. We can put that down to Spock being in pain and Bones being fatigued and worried. Although that's not to say that Kirk isn't a smartie also. He is a very clever boy.
> 
>  _"soul..."_ The Federation and Starfleet have adopted this word in official English documents and addresses because the word 'people' is thought of as too human-centric. Nearly every species has a notion of 'the soul' so this word is used, though some re-thinking on that may be needed as more species are being found which do not have the notion of souls, including some androids.
> 
>  _"soul with experience..."_ You can join Starfleet as a skilled worker. Not everyone takes the San Fran Newbie route.
> 
>  _"living their new, sightless lifestyle"_ In the Century 23, disabilities are not viewed as such, they are considered to be opportunities to live differently. Some species in the Federation are born sightless, limbless, etc. If a soul finds their abilities changed through accident or illness and a cure exists, they may take it. Or they may not take it. It is up to them if they want to live with the change or not. Geordi La Forge chose to follow a solution for his sightlessness. But if he had not, 24th century society would have still done its best to facilitate Geordie's engineering ambitions. 
> 
> _"Uhura would say that she knew all along..."_ A certain Ensign Chekov (who resides in Engineering at the time of this story) operates a notorious Enterprise-wide sweepstake called 'The Shipping Forecast'. Officers bet within it on who is going to f$!k who next. What can I say? It makes a long space voyage go faster. Anyway - the biggest money is being bet on Kirk and Spock. Various bets have come and gone along the way, such as 'They'll go back in time and do it' and the very specific: 'Spock is wearing a hat again - that'll get the Captain going' etc. Janice Rand is tasked with keeping a strict eye on proceedings between the two of them. She is to report to Chekov straightaway should Spock ever emerge from Kirk's bedroom to ask if he can get a bowl of Lucky Charms too.
> 
>  _"Spock was probably a millionaire..."_ Spock is actually a billionaire. His Vulcan family is richer than Rockefeller. Not that money matters a great deal in the Century 23. Everyone in 'The Fed' gets a fair salary and is cared for should they find themselves unable to work. And money matters even less to Vulcans. But yeah - he's rolling in it.
> 
>  _"Peter, Sam, Aurelan, George Jr and Jilly..."_ In the televised logs wot you 20th and 21st century types call 'Star Trek' Sam had three sons. Jim tells me this is incorrect. Their youngest was a little girl called Jilly who was sadly four years of age when she died.


End file.
